Occupy London 29/02/2012

February 29, 2012

We gathered on the steps for a general assembly last night. Everyone exhausted and lots of stories to tell. The removal of the tents is, of course, a visual reminder that this phase, at St. Paul’s is over; and the bleak expanse of the churchyard, bereft of banners and the myriad multi-coloured pop-up tents, felt unwelcoming and cold, though it was mild last night.

Lots of biscuits and cakes were passed round as we got on with the agenda – get into groups and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the occupation at St. Paul’s. The group I was in had little enthusiasm for this task so we more or less just chatted. At the feedback session (which seemed interminable there were so many groups of ten) it was interesting how people had self-selected others of like mind. One, for example, had written a poem, one was fiercely political another domestic, yet another and another and another…………..then James who founded Tent City Uni. turned up and introduced me to a woman he had just met at the LSE, who was interested in the Walk Around the London Boroughs project, that I am helping organise and my spirits lifted out of an increasing sense of inertia. Someone new, unencumbered by the memory of the past four months, feeling that same excitement that I felt when I came to St. Paul’s on October 18 last year. Only four months, but time is a fluid thing, and though its hard to imagine life before Occupy it’s equally hard to believe it happened at all.

When I woke up this morning I grappled to identify my mood. It’s grey and cold and damp outside so I was glad to contemplate staying in the warm and nursing my hacking ‘occupiers cough’ , and, to my surprise, not depressed, as I might have predicted, but relieved that, at least for a while, the pace has slowed down to a manageable rhythm.